News Archives - 2011

Meet the manager of Augsburg Jazz

MARCH 25, 2011

Interview with Steven Schwartz, Augsburg Jazz Band Manager

1. What is your major/minor? What year are you? What is your hometown?
I'm a sophomore Music Business major and I'm minoring in Management Information Systems and Marketing. I was born and raised in Fond du Lac, WI, a city with a population of about 40,000. Fond du Lac is roughly seventy miles northeast of Madison.

2. You're the jazz band manager? What exactly is involved with this responsibility? What is your favorite thing about it?
Yes, I am the Jazz Band Manager. The Jazz Manager position involves keeping the band organized and on time for rehearsals, concerts, and Sunday morning church run-outs where we play our gospel praise music. I distribute sheet music to the band and meet with Bob Stacke, our director, during my office hours about any new info the band needs to know about. One of my favorite things about this position is having a part in the decision-making process for music we're playing and what the band is currently doing, whether it be concerts we're playing or what we were recording in the studio earlier in the semester. This is great experience that is teaching me about the music business.

3. What is one of the best musical experiences you have had with the jazz ensemble?
One of the most fun and definitely one of the most interesting experiences I've had with jazz band was last year when we put on a concert with Zeitgeist, a music ensemble out of Saint Paul. We played really abstract 20th-century-style music; the written music wasn't even staves and notes but jumbled lines and shapes that we needed to interpret ourselves.

4. What have you learned about yourself or about music in your studies at Augsburg?
I originally came to Augsburg to be a Music Therapy Major, but throughout my almost two years of being involved with the Music Department and my classe,s I've come to the realization that -- while our Music Therapy Program is magnificent -- Music Business is the perfect career path for me.

5. What are you hoping to do after you graduate from Augsburg?
I'd love to land an administrative job behind a symphony or chamber orchestra some day, whether it be here in the Cities or somewhere else in the states. A management position in operations or marketing would be absolutely ideal.

6. Anything else you want to share? Everyone should come eat at Famous Dave's in Uptown on Sunday night (March 27) between 5-7 p.m. We'll be performing all the music we know during that time!